Are you struggling to find a technical partner that also understands your business?

If you’ve ever hired a development shop in the past, you know how hard it can be to find one that’s reliable – one that can get down to your real problem and solve it. Even if you find talented developers, you’ll soon find out that they only do what they’re told to – not what’s best for you. Simply put, they don’t understand your business. And without an understanding of both your business and the core problems you’re trying to solve, the risk that your project will fail goes through the roof.

Don’t gamble your time and money with someone who “thinks” they can pull it off

What if you could hire a seasoned, cross-functional team who are not only trustworthy and reliable, but knows that you don’t just need hands writing code; that you need to make a positive return on investment; that you need to make your clients kick ass?

What if the team you hire had experience and expertise in the whole business of web apps – from the depths of production operations and scaling to coding to user experience to marketing the app –, someone who’s been there and done exactly that? What if you could hire an ally, a partner, and not just a pair of hands?

We want to be there for you

We, Bear Metal, are Erkki, Jarkko, Lourens and Tarmo. We’re the bulk of the original tech team behind Wildfire App, a huge success story that was bought last year by Google for hundreds of millions of dollars. And we’re ready to put the lessons learned during the past five years at Wildfire (and almost a decade before that in other projects) into your use. We want to learn about you, your company, and your current or future clients that deserve the best app possible.

“Why should I trust you?”

As a business we’re brand new but as a team we’ve got about half a decade of jelling behind us. We helped to build a product from a wild idea to a juggernaut serving a large portion of Fortune 50 companies. Across the company that eventually grew to hundreds of employees before being acquired, we were known as the guys that get shit done.

“What makes you think you’ll understand my business”

We have a very simple definition of a successful business: it makes a shitload of profit by making its clients kick ass. We’re not trying to sell you a web app, we know what you want is lots of profitable customers. How precisely that happens in your case depends – and that’s why every projects starts with a deep discussion on your business and the problems you’re facing. Only after that are we able to help you to flesh out a plan to make you more money.

“Why do you only have one former client?”

Five years ago we started the relationship with Wildfire as freelance programmers. But they just wouldn’t let us go. What we ended up being was the team that built the app that completely changed the social media contest business. We stayed for five years because leaving or giving up is not something we’re known for. We want to build long term, deep relationships with everyone we work with.

We might not be the right choice for you if…

You just need a pair of hands
If you only need someone to crank code to a spec, we are not made for each other. We have extensive experience in this business and want to truly help you to build the best app possible. That means we will tell you our opinion.

You’ve got this enterprise process to adhere to
If you need signing off from a committee to get anything done, this probably won’t work out. We want to build a close relationship with our partners and iterate rapidly and it just won’t cut with layers upon layers of red tape.

How much?
If you’re looking for the lowest hourly rate possible, our rate will probably make you faint. But if you want to make an investment in your business and want to work with an expert partner who’s acutely aware that you need to recoup it and then some, let’s have a chat.

The guys at Bear Metal have been instrumental to Wildfire’s rise to success. Without exception we could trust them to do what’s best for the company’s bottom line with limited managerial oversight.

Hiring a development and operations team, especially one that’s distributed and overseas, is always unnerving. I have heard far more horror stories than I have successes when it comes to working with overseas contract developers. But in our case we hit the jackpot by finding these guys when we founded Wildfire. While they weren’t technically cofounders, there was never any question that they cared for Wildfire like it was their own child.

The Bear Metal team was 100% reliable, very talented and a true pleasure to work with. I wholeheartedly recommend them.

When we started Wildfire, it was important to us to work with a team of engineers that felt passionate about coding rather than simply being mercenaries. Finding Erkki, Tarmo, Jarkko and later Lourens was the best thing that happened for the development of our product. In addition to being incredibly passionate about their work, it’s hard to imagine a team that would have broader expertise in all things web apps, from technical details to scaling large systems to understanding customer needs.

They are in a true meaning of the word managers of one, so you could with 100% confidence be sure they get things done and keep systems running without need for micro-management. Not only that, they’re not shy about providing alternative solutions.

Alain Chuard, Founder and Head of Product, Wildfire Interactive (now division of Google)

“Bear Metal was the ideal contractor to work with – smart, fast, and great communication.”

The ideal contractor to work with – smart, fast, and great communication. They picked up a Ruby job easily, didn’t require much overhead, and delivered a great library.

Fraser Macdonald, Program Manager at Xively

You’re done with gambling on app developers, and you want to hire a team of experts who understand your business.

Reserve a confidential discussion, and let’s see how we can help your users kick butt:

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How we’ll master your next project together…

When we kick off your project, we will first immerse ourselves in your business. Anything and everything relevant to making your project a smashing success needs to be on table. Partners don’t have any secrets, do they? Prepare to answer some tricky questions!

Then, we’ll meet and discuss your goals with the project: If you could paint a perfect picture of tomorrow, what would that look like? What defines success for you? What would be a home run?

After we have a clear understanding of your goals and pains, we’ll create a plan of action to get us there. Working with whatever budget and time constraints you have, we’ll make sure you get the maximum return for each dollar or euro you invest in this project.

Finally, we’ll get our hands dirty moving us toward the goalpost. We’ll iterate rapidly and each week you’ll get to see the latest updates to your project. We’ll get together often to find out if there’s a quicker and/or better path to get us to your goal.

Ready to roll?

We’re currently accepting new clients for the end of 2014. But be quick, there will only be a single slot available at every given time. We don’t think our clients deserve us to be juggling several projects at the same time.

Simply fill out the form above or drop us an email, and we’ll schedule a time where we can discuss your business, your project, and how we can help shape the tomorrow of your business.